George Plunkett Biography

George Plunkett
1913-2006

1913: Born at home in Dereham Road,
Norwich.
1917-29: Attended Avenue Road and City of Norwich
schools.
1929-73: Worked for the local government school health
department in Churchman House. Supported the RAF's effort
in Leicestershire, North Africa and Italy during WW2.
1931: Started photographing Norwich's changing
architecture with an Ensign box camera, upgrading to an
Ensign Carbine Number 7 camera in 1932.
1935: Joined the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological
Society. Later its Librarian and a Vice-president.
1947: Married Margaret, a Midwife and Health Visitor from
East Dereham, and raised two sons, Philip and Jonathan.
1973-78: Worked for Norwich Union at offices in the city.
1987-90: Books Disappearing Norwich and Rambles
in Old Norwich published.
2000: Photographs of old Norwich website goes
online.

Early Life

George Arthur Frank Plunkett was born in 1913 at home
in Dereham Road, the younger child of Frank and Lily
Plunkett, and christened at Magdalen Road Congregational
Church with the names of his grandfathers and father.

In 1916 the family moved to Pembroke Road, George
attending Avenue Road Infants School from the following
year (head teachers Miss C L Pyle and Miss L A Olley). He
moved up to the Boys Department at the age of 8 (head
teachers F J Smith and F T Oxbury).

He joined the 12th Norwich (Holy Trinity)
Wolf Cub Pack, who met in Pelham Hall, Gloucester Street
(pack leader Miss Lomax), and in 1924 spent a memorable
week with them in South Hampstead (with scout leader G
Mallett) visiting the British Empire Exhibition at
Wembley and other places of interest in London.

In the same year he sat for the scholarship
examination and was awarded an Exhibition by the Trustees
of the Norwich Town Close Estate Charity. He transferred
in September to the City of Norwich School, Eaton Road,
under the headmastership of W R Gurley. He was placed in
Parker House and commenced in Form 3C1, moving up at
Christmas to Form 3B and in subsequent years to Forms 4A,
5A and Shell 2.

In July 1928 he sat for and passed the Cambridge
University School Certificate Examination, obtaining
credit in Art, French and Arithmetic.

Not being 16 years old until the following March, he
remained at school until then in the Commercial Class
(Form 6B), qualifying in book-keeping and Pitmans
shorthand.

Work (16 to 60) and War-service

In March 1929 George Plunkett commenced work as a
junior clerk in the Norwich Public Health Department at
Churchman House, St Giles Street, having been
interviewed by the Chairman of the Health Committee, Dr
George Stevens Pope, and the Medical Officer of Health,
Dr V F Soothill. For the first two years he assisted with
work in the Maternity and Child Welfare Section, but in
1931 was transferred to the School Medical Service, being
appointed clerk-in-charge of that section in August 1939.

He served with the Royal Air Force
during the Second World War from January 1941 until
February 1946. During the first two years he was on
detachment from RAF Cottesmore on a decoy site at
Willoughby Waterless, Leicestershire: one of four such
sites guarding the city of Leicester from night attacks.
The sites were situated in fields in the heart of the
country and consisted of dummy fires and electric lights
scattered about to resemble marshalling yards and faulty
factory blackouts.

In October 1942 he was sent with
others on a two week course dealing with dummy flare
paths and the netting of Spitfires and Hurricanes for
camouflage purposes. This course was held at Sound
City Shepperton, the headquarters of Colonel
Turners camouflage and decoy department of the Air
Ministry.

In November he was posted
temporarily to New Romney, Kent, to assist in the
erection and manning of a dummy airfield (assembling
models of Spitfires and Hurricanes under cover of
darkness). It was whilst here that he thought his number
was up, when the train he was riding came under fire from
an enemy aircraft. By remarkable luck, the
steam-engines boiler exploded after being hit, with
its flying debris in turn bringing down the fighter.

He returned to Willoughby in
December only to be posted overseas in January 1943.
Service in North Africa took him to Setif, Bone,
Souk-el-Arba and La Sebala near Tunis; in Sicily to
Borizzo near Trapani; and in Italy to Grottaglie near
Taranto, Pomigliano dArco near Naples and Foggia.
The intended purpose was the operation of dummy
flarepaths to attract enemy bombers away from allied
aerodromes but their equipment being far superior to that
in use for the genuine thing, he was posted on detachment
with three others to illuminate airstrips for 255 Night
Fighter Squadron (Beaufighters).

On cessation of hostilities in
Europe he was posted to No 6 Base Personnel Office at
Portici, Naples, for clerical duties, and reached the
rank of Corporal. While there, he developed a love of
opera, attending many performances at the San Carlo opera
house.

In April 1946 he returned to work in
Norwich at the Health Department, where he met his future
wife Margaret. In November 1947, at the parish church of
Thorpe St Andrew, they were married by the rector, the
Reverend R Fielding, and made their home nearby in
Margetson Avenue. There were two children: Philip Charles
(1950) and Jonathan George (1955).

The Ensign Carbine Number 7

Folds up to jacket pocket size.

Takes 8 pictures, each 2¼ x 3¼ inches, on a 120
roll film.

Has a manually set aperture (f4.5 to f22) and
exposure time (0.01 to 1 second and 'bulb').

Has no flash-gun, but accepts a standard tripod
for time-exposures.

Is focussed by sliding the lens in or out along a
scale.

Has both wire-frame and optical viewfinders.

Has a 'rising front': the lens can be moved
parallel to the film to include tops of buildings
without tipping the camera backwards. This helps
keep parallel the vertical edges of buildings,
instead of them appearing to converge.

Photography and Archaeology

George Plunkett acquired a 'box' camera in
1931 and started building a photographic survey of
Norwich. Aware of its limitations, he replaced it the
following year with an Ensign Carbine number 7 which lasted
the rest of his life. He developed and printed over 1000 rolls
of black and white film himself, arranging the contact-sized
prints in albums according to subject matter or street name.

From 1938 to 1952 he was a member of
the Norwich and District Photographic Society and had a
number of lantern slides exhibited at several of their
annual exhibitions held in the Norwich Castle Museum.
Certificates of merit were awarded in 1949 and 1951 for
his photographs of the misericords in Blakeney church,
and the transept roof at Salle.

From 1935 until his death he was a
member of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society.
He had five papers published in the Societys
Transactions: Old Norwich Doorways (1942); 17th
Century Ceiling at 12 St Stephens Street, Norwich
(1944); St George (Middle) Street, Norwich  In
Memoriam (1970); Churchman House, St Giles
Street, Norwich (1975); and Norfolk Church Screens
(1865 Survey) (1979). All except the last-named were
illustrated with his own photographs. The paper on
Norfolk Screens resulted from his transcribing the 320
replies which had been received in response to a
questionnaire sent out by the Archaeological Society in
1865 to the Norfolk Clergy.

In 1947 he was elected a member of
the Societys Council, and held the post of Honorary
Librarian from 1952 to 1962 and 1966 to 1988. In June
1972 he was additionally elected as a vice-president to
the Society.

He also was a member of the Royal
Archaeological Institute from 1951 to 1970, publishing a
paper entitled Norwich Guildhall.

Freedom of the City

In September 1966, during the
mayoralty of Alderman Harry Perry, George Plunkett was
made a freeman of the City of Norwich, by inheriting the
honour from his father. The regulations had been modified
four months previously so as to allow all sons of Norwich
freemen to take up their freedom when of age, whether or
not born before their fathers were admitted.

In 1967 the family moved back to the
quiet surroundings of Thorpe St Andrew after a spell of
ten years in College Road.

In June 1970 he and his wife
attended by Royal Invitation (and on the recommendation
of the President of the Archaeological Society, Canon
Thurlow) one of the Afternoon Parties held in the gardens
of Buckingham Palace. The Queen and Prince Philip both
walked among the visitors.

Work (60 to 65)

In March 1973 George Plunkett
voluntarily retired from service in Local Government
having reached the age of 60. At a gathering of
colleagues in the former dining room of Churchman House,
he was presented by Dr J R Murdock on behalf of over
eighty members and ex-members of staff with an electric
lawn-mower.

A few weeks later, in the
Mayors Parlour at the City Hall, he was presented
with a long service certificate and a TV by the Lord
Mayor, Dick Seabrook, on behalf of Norwich Corporation.

Temporary employment was then
obtained in the Motor Underwriting Department of the
Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, Surrey Street,
Norwich. In February 1976 he was transferred to the
Personal (policies) Department at Norvic House on Chapel
Field Road, moving back with this department to the Fire
Wing at the Head Office in Surrey Street in June 1977.
Three months later he was transferred to the Royal London
Mutual (an affiliated Society of Norwich Union) carrying
out the same duties, increasing sums insured
(anti-inflation) as indicated by the policy holders, and
raising the premiums of certain items to accord with a
revised scale of charges. This transfer involved no
change of office other than that of moving from one end
of the room to the other.

He retired from this employment at
the age of 65 in March 1978. On leaving he was presented
with a pen and scroll signed by members of the
department.

Publications

In September 1987 George Plunkett
had a book published by Daltons of Lavenham entitled Disappearing
Norwich illustrated by 120 photographs taken by
himself mainly during the 1930s when slum-clearance
and street-widening were responsible for the demolition
of many buildings of architectural or historical
importance. Sales of the book were sufficiently good to
justify two reprints in the following years.

In November 1990 he had a further
book published by Daltons entitled Rambles in Old
Norwich. Illustrated by 148 of his own photographs,
it was in the nature of a perambulation not only of the
four Great Wards of the city but also of the area outside
the Walls. Unlike the previous book where all the
illustrations were of things no longer existing, in this
book a number of views were included of buildings still
standing although with a history perhaps not all that
well known.

In the same month of publication,
sadly, his wife died suddenly after contracting
pneumonia.

Later years

In 1996 the Norfolk and Norwich
Archaeological Society celebrated the 150th
year of its existence. In January an anniversary
tea-party was held at Suckling Hall and a surprise
presentation was made to him of a commemorative clear
glass paperweight with a design adapted from the
Societys seal on its face and inscribed with his
name. The presentation was made in order to mark his
long and distinguished service to the
Society.

In 2000, all his photographs of the
city were placed on the Internet: his website generating
a steady stream of emails from appreciative visitors from
around the world.

He enjoyed an active and independent
life until, at the age of 93 in 2006, he was brought down by a combination
of pneumonia and a small stroke following a fall.